In an age where awareness around neurodivergence is growing, one truth continues to challenge both individuals and clinicians alike: neurodivergent conditions rarely occur in isolation. ADHD, autism, Tourette’s Syndrome, sensory processing differences, anxiety disorders, and OCD-like behaviours often co-exist within the same individual. These overlapping traits can interact in ways that both complicate and conceal, making accurate diagnosis, treatment, and self-understanding an often painful and delayed journey.

Understanding your neurotype — whether it includes ADHD, autism, or any other neurodivergence — isn't just about labels. It’s about decoding your brain’s wiring, which is essential for self-compassion, accessing the right support, and navigating the world with a little less friction. Without this clarity, the mind becomes a tangle of misunderstood symptoms, misdiagnoses, inappropriate treatments, and mounting internalized shame.

Misidentification and masking can also result in long-term emotional trauma.

ADHD and Anxiety: A Chaotic Feedback Loop

Unmanaged ADHD — especially when undiagnosed — often leads to chronic anxiety. Here’s why.

People with ADHD struggle with executive dysfunction. Organizing tasks, remembering appointments, finishing projects on time — all can feel like climbing Everest with no gear. When these struggles are misunderstood as laziness or carelessness (by society or oneself), the emotional toll builds. Over time, this unpredictability and repeated failure can trigger persistent anxiety.

Anxiety in ADHD isn’t just about worrying. It’s often rooted in the anticipation of failure or overwhelm. When you constantly forget things, interrupt others, or feel behind, it’s only natural to become hypervigilant — scanning every moment for the next thing you might mess up. For many, this manifests in perfectionism, avoidance, or shutdowns, which are often mistaken for classic anxiety disorders rather than ADHD-driven stress.

And here’s the kicker: traditional anxiety treatments like CBT often focus on thought patterns without addressing the executive function deficits driving the anxiety. Without managing ADHD first, anxiety management strategies often fall flat.

Internal Hyperactivity and Sensory Overload

Hyperactivity isn’t always loud or obvious. Many people, especially women and AFAB individuals with ADHD, experience internal hyperactivity — a relentless mental chatter, racing thoughts, emotional impulsivity, or the inability to mentally rest.

When paired with sensory sensitivities — common in both ADHD and autism — this internal restlessness amplifies into overwhelm. Imagine your brain is a crowded train station: lights flickering, announcements blaring, and a dozen trains trying to leave at once. This is what sensory overload often feels like when internal hyperactivity meets a neurodivergent sensory system.

The result? Shutdowns, irritability, panic attacks, or emotional dysregulation — often misinterpreted as mood disorders or personality issues rather than symptoms of sensory-emotional overload.

How ADHD, Autism, and Tourette’s Interact with One Another

When ADHD, autism, and Tourette’s co-exist, their interplay creates unique neurological friction. Each condition influences the other in ways that can increase symptoms or make them harder to distinguish.

How ADHD Affects Autism

ADHD adds a layer of impulsivity and inattention to the autistic experience. While autism is often associated with preference for structure, predictability, and focused interests, ADHD can disrupt this with distractibility and impulsive behaviour. This combination can feel like a brain being pulled in two directions — one seeking order, the other scattering focus.

An autistic person with ADHD may want to stick to a routine, but constantly forget or get sidetracked. They may hyperfocus on special interests, yet struggle to initiate tasks related to daily functioning. The ADHD brain’s need for stimulation can also conflict with the autistic brain’s need for predictability and sensory regulation, resulting in a constant push-pull that heightens anxiety, sensory issues, and fatigue.

How ADHD Affects Tourette’s Syndrome

ADHD is a common co-occurrence in people with Tourette’s Syndrome. In many cases, ADHD-related impulsivity and difficulty with self-regulation can exacerbate tics. For instance, a person with ADHD may struggle more with suppressing or managing tics in environments where they feel overstimulated or emotionally dysregulated.

In addition, ADHD can make tic management strategies harder to follow through on — especially if those strategies involve behavioural techniques that require sustained focus, self-monitoring, or routine (like Habit Reversal Therapy). The interplay often increases emotional distress, especially in school or workplace settings where both focus and social conformity are expected.

How Autism Affects Tourette’s Syndrome

Autism can intensify the sensory and social impact of tics. Autistic individuals may be more sensitive to the internal build-up leading to a tic or to how their tics are perceived socially. This can result in increased masking, greater shame, and more emotional regulation challenges.

Autistic traits like rigidity or black-and-white thinking can also complicate how a person feels about their tics — leading to perfectionism, social anxiety, or compulsive behaviours to try to "fix" or hide them. This is particularly damaging in childhood and adolescence, where acceptance and social belonging are vital.

All three conditions — autism, ADHD, and Tourette’s — affect self-regulation, emotional processing, and sensory integration. When combined, they can significantly increase vulnerability to overwhelm, meltdown, and burnout, often without clinicians realizing the interwoven cause.

Misdiagnoses and Misdirected Therapies

Because co-occurring neurodivergence presents so inconsistently, many people receive mental health diagnoses that don’t quite fit — or worse, lead to inappropriate treatment.

ADHD is often mistaken for Bipolar Disorder, especially when emotional dysregulation is severe. The swings between hyperfocus and exhaustion, joy and frustration, can mimic mood episodes. But unlike bipolar, ADHD mood shifts are typically short-lived and triggered by external events.
Undiagnosed autism often looks like social anxiety, generalized anxiety, or even depression. An autistic person avoiding social situations due to sensory or social burnout might be seen as “withdrawn” or “depressed” without anyone realizing the neurological root cause.
Sensory overload and shutdowns in autism may be mistaken for panic disorder.
Tourette’s or tics may be misdiagnosed as anxiety-driven habits or compulsions unless a clinician understands the full neurodivergent picture.
OCD-like behaviours may not stem from classic OCD, but rather from an ADHD brain trying to impose external order to compensate for internal chaos — a coping mechanism, not a compulsion rooted in obsession.

Each misdiagnosis steers a person further from the correct supports. Wrong medications (such as antipsychotics for someone actually needing ADHD stimulants) can blunt cognition, worsen mood, or reinforce the belief that something is “broken” inside them.

OCD-Like Coping in an ADHD World

Many people with ADHD develop routines or rituals that resemble OCD — not out of obsession, but out of desperation. When your brain forgets appointments, leaves projects half-done, or loses things constantly, you might start lining up your shoes obsessively or checking the stove five times before leaving the house. It’s not always about irrational fear; sometimes it’s about surviving chaos.

This is often overlooked by professionals trained to see compulsions only through the OCD lens. But in many ADHDers, these rituals are compensatory: they soothe the fear of forgetting, losing control, or disappointing others — again.

Sensory Differences, Autism, and Emotional Avalanche

Autistic people often experience the world through a sensory lens that’s dialed up to eleven. Bright lights, background noise, itchy fabrics, or strong smells can feel unbearable. Pair that with an ADHD brain that jumps from one stimulus to another, and you have a recipe for overwhelm.

Because these sensory issues are invisible and highly individualized, they often get dismissed — or pathologized as anxiety or emotional dysregulation. But the root cause is neurological. When ignored or misunderstood, the constant sensory strain wears down emotional resilience, triggering anxiety, avoidance, and even trauma responses.

Delayed Diagnosis and the Intersection of Neurodivergence

Most people who are eventually diagnosed as neurodivergent don't get clarity until adulthood. This delay is especially common for women, minority groups, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those who don’t fit the "classic" presentation of a condition.

Why is diagnosis so delayed?

Symptoms overlap. Is it anxiety or sensory overload? Is it depression or autistic burnout?
Masking is rampant. Many neurodivergent people learn to hide their struggles through mimicry, over-preparation, or perfectionism. This makes their challenges less visible to others — and to themselves.
Bias in the system. Diagnostic criteria have historically been based on white, male, cisgender populations. Those who diverge from this template are frequently overlooked.
Comorbidity clouds the picture. When someone presents with ADHD, autism, anxiety, OCD traits, and tics — where do you even begin? Many clinicians aren’t trained to identify multiple neurotypes simultaneously.

This diagnostic maze can take years — even decades — to navigate. And during that time, people internalize shame, develop trauma responses, and adopt identities that aren’t truly theirs.

Masking, Suppression, and the Cost of Being “Normal”

When society doesn’t make room for neurodivergence, neurodivergent people often contort themselves into shapes that don't fit. This is called masking — the act of hiding or suppressing traits in order to appear neurotypical.

You may:

Force eye contact even when it’s distressing.
Sit still even when your body is screaming to move.
Laugh at jokes you don’t understand to fit in.
Pretend not to be overwhelmed in loud, chaotic spaces.

Masking is survival. But it's also exhausting. Over time, it erodes self-identity and can lead to autistic burnout, depression, or dissociation. It’s also a key reason why many neurodivergent people don’t realize they’re neurodivergent — because their entire life has been shaped by the belief that their struggles are personal failings, not neurological differences.

Trauma, the Nervous System, and Neurodivergence

Neurodivergent people often live in a world not built for their brains. The constant invalidation, overwhelm, misunderstanding, and rejection they experience can create trauma — even if it's not the kind most people recognize.

Developmental trauma from being punished for traits outside one’s control.
Relational trauma from being misread, mistreated, or excluded.
Medical trauma from years of misdiagnosis, gaslighting, or ineffective treatments.
Identity trauma from never being allowed to fully know or accept oneself.

These experiences alter the nervous system. Many neurodivergent people live in a constant state of fight-or-flight — hypervigilant, emotionally reactive, and unable to rest. This only deepens the spiral of misdiagnosis and mental health strain.

And yet, traditional trauma therapy may not work unless the therapist understands how neurodivergence shapes a person’s sensory experience, cognition, and needs. Without this lens, trauma work risks retraumatizing rather than healing.

So, Why Does All This Matter?

Knowing your neurotype is not a vanity project. It is essential information about how your brain works — how you think, feel, move, relate, and survive.

When you understand your unique neurodivergent profile, you can:

Choose therapies that actually help.
Stop blaming yourself for things that were never your fault.
Set boundaries around sensory needs and energy.
Find community with others who get it.
Reduce masking and reclaim authenticity.

Most importantly, you can start healing the trauma of living in a world that never saw you clearly.

Final Thoughts

Co-occurring neurodivergence is messy, complicated, and deeply human. It defies neat diagnostic boxes and demands a more nuanced, compassionate approach to mental health. Whether you live with ADHD, autism, Tourette’s, sensory differences, anxiety, or all of the above, your experience is real — even if others have misunderstood it.

Your brain is not broken. It’s just wired differently.

And knowing how it’s wired? That changes everything.

If you are struggling, please get in contact and book a free 15 minute consultation with me at www.flourishwithneurodiversity.com. I can support you with dual and multiple neurotypes such as Autism, ADHD, AuDHD and Tourettes Syndrome.

When Minds Collide: How Co-Occurring Neurodivergence Intertwines.